the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

"It’s worth recalling how Ryan became a semi-household name." - whose household is this?

red states

going to synagogue shortly. i'm going to conduct an informal poll of the 95% conservative congregation about what they think of ryan. i suspect 90% of them haven't heard of him.

(lowercase c conservative obv)

Harry Reid dominated campaign news for a week based on saying like 20 words, not easy, credit where credits due

^^^^

i think it was actually closer to two weeks, even?

quite a few liberal bloggers/pundits were like "that's so awful what harry reid is doing" and i'm like DO YOU NOT WANT TO WIN AN ELECTION ffs

tbf most leftists/libs do not in fact want to win an election

Ryan is gonna be a giant anchor around the neck of Romney's already-sinking campaign. Joe Biden should just move down to Florida till November and drive around in a loudspeaker truck shouting, "If Romney wins, you can kiss Medicare goodbye" over and over. Not only that, Ryan has fucked himself by taking this gig. Had he stayed in the House or even run for Senate, he might have had a chance at getting his nightmarish agenda passed, but name me one piece of legislation originating with and championed by the Vice-President. It's the single least powerful position in DC.

quite a few liberal bloggers/pundits were like "that's so awful what harry reid is doing" and i'm like DO YOU NOT WANT TO WIN AN ELECTION ffs

― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g), Saturday, August 11, 2012 10:52 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was totally not awful either, it was hilarious, and if these spurious charges were so hurting mitts feelings he could just like release his returns

I read someone suggest that harry reid release his tax returns, which woulda been a super lol move

haha yes

LBJ needs to return from the dead and slap each liberal blogger who got the vapors over Harry Reid these past few weeks upside the head with a frozen fish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwLirQS2-o

the worst part of this decision (or best maybe) is that it recreates same dynamic as last election - moderate president and radical vp so that when they lose republican moderates can blame far right-wing for radicalization of party and radicals can blame moderates for being RINOs that turned off America and then we can do it all over again in 2016.

no 'british humor' in the american politics thread xp

yeah I think 'moderate who nobody likes is last man standing in crazytown -> picks resident of crazytown for vp' is very likely to happen in 2016

distancing yrself from the one thing yr new running mate is known for moments after picking him, ladies nd gentlemen mitt romney http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/mitt-romney-ryan-budget.php

it was amazing how sad and disappointed so many pundits were that harry reid just refused to be ashamed of himself and back off his statement that he heard mitt didn't pay any taxes. like making a charge about someone's tax returns was soooooo out of line. what the hell!

re: ryan. this looks like a terrible decision by romney. cnn just got into the "what's paul ryan about" and it started off with: wants to privatize social security and end medicare as we know it

ryan's jackets are much too big for him is my analysis

it was amazing how sad and disappointed so many pundits were that harry reid just refused to be ashamed of himself and back off his statement that he heard mitt didn't pay any taxes. like making a charge about someone's tax returns was soooooo out of line. what the hell!

the DC pundit class is consumed with the micronuances of propriety and acceptable boundaries of discourse - as you'd expect from professional gossipers - but insists that these boundaries are natural, like the curves of the Colorado River, and not a product of, say, the pundits' own decisions and hang-ups and above all, their politics

like making a charge about someone's tax returns was soooooo out of line

this is otm i think ppl intuitively get that talking trash about someone's tax returns is not a duel-starting offense

I dont really buy that this will give Romney much cover when he looses and Obama is not by any measure a historically weak incumbent but its kinda an interesting theory http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106035/picking-ryan-isnt-bold-its-highly-risk-averse

the DC pundit class is consumed with the micronuances of propriety and acceptable boundaries of discourse - as you'd expect from professional gossipers - but insists that these boundaries are natural, like the curves of the Colorado River, and not a product of, say, the pundits' own decisions and hang-ups and above all, their politics

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Saturday, August 11, 2012 11:13 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

That Scheiber piece is interesting, but I honestly can't see that Romney's thrown in the towel yet--why would he with so much time left?. Besides, they already have cover for the blame-it-on-the-right argument, in that Romney has accommodated the right every step of the way so far.

ryan's jackets are much too big for him is my analysis

that's not good! it makes you look too young.. image matters and you already have to wonder if a 42 year old guy from the house GOP is ready to be the next president, which is really the most important role of the VP, and if people start to think this person isn't serious enough to fill that role, it's a problem. carville was on cnn saying "he couldn't even bother to wear a tie?"

idk i always figured anyone who wrote a budget like that and treated it as serious policy that was good for the country was def out of touch with the real world - rising political star who's been in a bubble and only talking to young republicans + the base. doesn't know what effect his policies will have on real people (esp seniors), doesn't care

i'm picturing cranky retirees looking at the tv right now thinking who's this little twerp who wants to screw up medicare

Reid v Romney I like because it's like Spy v Spy but Mormon v Mormon – the Mormon angle is the only thing I enjoy about this election, you guys can probably tell.

lol wut http://jalopnik.com/5933877/paul-ryan-used-to-drive-the-wienermobile

Private sector experience.

well, his only other job was at a McDonald's, so it makes sense that he likes processed meat

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/netiquette-what-do-you-do-when-youre-an-accident

so I guess the Beltway betting match now becomes who "reforms" SS firt in 2012: Romney or Obama

cnn currently playing reaction from Some Guy On Youtube who has very.... long..... pauses.... between.... sentences....... and thinks ryan is very articulate and is a great pick

well that settles it

no ones touching ss, its really mysterious to me why politicians even pretend they're going to, its such a wildly unpopular move

apologies for quoting POLITICO playbook but

The drawbacks: Limited executive and foreign-policy experience. Ready on Day 1 – really?

it's a fair question, didn't they learn last time that the #1 job of the vp pick was to be ready to be president? that hasn't changed!

no question we should be grateful for Wolf Blitzer's wisdom:

On CNN, at about 1:35 this morning, Wolf Blitzer was already warning Democrats not to get too cocky in the face of Paul Ryan's mighty intellect. "In 1980," Wolf told us, "Democrats were high-fiving when the Republicans nominated Ronald Reagan."

^i was there, bullshit

anyway as someone wrote on Salon yesterday this is a Dole-Kemp pick, not likely to work unless there's a crash.

Dems already torn to shreads by the Carter-Kennedy fracas.

*shreds

Man I will never stop lolling @ tim pawlenty....what a loser

Haven't gone through all the Corner rah-rahing (there's a lot of it), but here's the lead editorial:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313728/just-ticket-editors

Betting that Sullivan cuts his vacation short--I don't think he'll be disciplined enough to leave the requisite outrage and hysteria in the hands of interns. (He'll especially be all over the beholden-to-Bill-Kristol angle.)

Ryan as cheerleader for Mitt Romney in his speech was very awkward.

Mr. Romney, who is not known for routinely exhibiting physical warmth, patted Mr. Ryan on the back 10 times after his running mate bounded onto the stage. When Mr. Ryan finished his remarks, Mr. Romney whispered a word into his ear. “Perfect,” he said.

Drawing upon all my lip-reading skills, I was sure that Mitt whispered "That was really a big fucking deal!"

so if this is the 2004 campaign in reverse, ryan is our john edwards

Sex scandal being that he'll be caught screwing Ayn's corpse.

i think this is a liiitle more dangerous that you guys are making out. it's certainly "clarifying" as they say. instead of being a referendum on the president (again, scare quotes), they'd like to run on a referendum on the whole public sector. i'm honestly not sure how that one goes these days.

point of detail: ryan's plan is not to take away medicare, it's to 'strengthen medicare' by leaving it alone for people who already have it, and take it away from everybody else! given the attitudes of old ppl these days, well...